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Doors Closing on Iraqi Displaced    [
Britain to Resettle Its Iraqi Interpreters    [

    Iraq's Displaced People Nightmare
    By Magdi Abdelhadi
    BBC

    Wednesday 10 October 2007

    The huge displacement of people inside Iraq appears to be contributing to the further fragmentation of the country.

    The scale of the overall displacement is unprecedented in the modern history of the Middle East.

    There are now an estimated four million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes, and the numbers continue to rise, according to the UN refugee agency.

    Neighbouring Jordan and Syria, which have borne the brunt of the problem after receiving some two million refugees over the past few years, have now restricted access because they can no longer cope with the influx.

    The plight of those who have fled their homes but have not been able to leave the country is dire, says the UN refugee agency.

    The head of the Iraq Support Unit, Andrew Harper, told the BBC that an increasing number of provinces were turning the refugees away because they lacked resources to look after them.

    He said with so many people in desperate need of shelter and food, Iraq was like a pressure-cooker.

    Beyond Baghdad's Control

    Mr Harper said the UN agency had raised the issue with the central government in Baghdad, but was told that the local authorities had been urged to shelter the fleeing Iraqis.

    This means that local governments are in effect ignoring directives from Baghdad.

    Steve Simon of the US Council on Foreign Relations told the BBC: "Local authorities are taking ever greater unilateral prerogative in areas that they control because the central state is ineffective, it lacks capacity."

    Mr Simon said the local governments were facing hard choices.

    "They are not going to make their local constituencies unhappy by letting all these displaced persons from other areas in Iraq in to split a pie that is already pretty meagre," he said.

    The refugee problem is also likely to make national reconciliation even more difficult to achieve.

    "Recruiting-Grounds"

    Ghaith Abdul Ahad, an Iraqi journalist, says the areas where displaced Iraqis live have become fertile recruiting-grounds for militants.

    "The insurgents in west Baghdad tell me that the hardest fighters are the Sunnis who have been kicked out of their homes by the Shia," Mr Abdul Ahad told the BBC.

    There is a real fear that the temporary ramshackle refugee camps that today dot the Iraqi landscape are festering wounds that may take years to heal.

    More ominously, they are a breeding ground for violence as well as social and political turmoil.

    Outside Iraq, the long-term effect of the exodus is difficult to foresee.

    Some analysts have drawn comparisons with the plight of the Palestinians, who were forced to flee after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

    And if that analogy is anything to go by, then the Iraqi refugee crisis could become a destabilising factor for the entire region for years to come.

    No one can predict the exact impact on the precarious demographic balance in neighbouring Syria and Jordan, which have received the highest numbers of Iraqi refugees.

    These societies may continue to cope with the problem, as long as there is the prospect that the refugees will one day be able to go back.

    But if years go by without that happening, the threat of instability may haunt the region for the foreseeable future.

 

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    Go to Original

    Doors Closing on Iraqi Displaced
    BBC News

    Wednesday 10 October 2007

    An increasing number of Iraqi provinces are refusing entry to refugees fleeing violence in other parts of the country, the UN refugee agency has warned.
The head of the UNHCR Iraq Support Unit told the BBC up to 11 governors were restricting access because they lacked resources to look after the refugees.

    Andrew Harper warned that, with no imminent end to the displacement, Iraq was becoming a "pressure cooker".

    The UNHCR recently said more than 2.2m Iraqis had become internally displaced.

    It estimates a further 2.2m have fled to neighbouring states, particularly Syria and Jordan, since the US-led invasion in 2003.

    "Pressure Cooker"

    In an interview with the BBC, Mr Harper said Iraqi authorities had been overwhelmed by the scope of the internal refugee problem and did not have the resources to cope.

    He said the governors of up to 11 provinces - out of 18 in the country - had reacted to the crisis by blocking internal migrants from entering their territory, or denying them food and education if they do get in.

    "We are seeing an increasing number of governorates closing their borders or restricting entry to new arrivals," he said.

    "And so we have a pressure cooker building up inside Iraq - there is no imminent end to the displacement," he added.

    "The possibility for Iraqis to find safety and find is becoming increasingly restricted. So, where they can move is becoming over-populated and intense."

    Mr Harper said the UNHCR had raised the problem with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad, but it was told that local authorities had been urged not to turn away Iraqis fleeing other parts of the country.

    The 4.4m Iraqi refugees fleeing the violence and turmoil in the country, Mr Harper said, were the biggest challenge facing the UNHCR and the international community at the moment.

    He said the figures were increasing on average by up to 100,000 every month.

    In Diyala province, local aid workers have said they have been unable to reach thousands of families, including displaced refugees, because of the serious security situation.

    Mr Harper's warning comes at a time when Iraq's neighbours have more or less closed their borders to Iraqi refugees, saying they can no longer cope with the strain on their resources.

    Where the Iraqis Have Fled
    Syria: 1,400,000
    Jordan: 750,000
    Gulf states: 200,000
    Egypt: 100,000
    Iran: 54,000
    Lebanon: 40,000
    Turkey: 10,000
    Internally displaced: 2,250,000
    Source: UNHCR

 

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    Go to Original

    Britain to Resettle Its Iraqi Interpreters
    By Mark Rice-Oxley
    The Christian Science Monitor

    Thursday 11 October 2007

As troops withdraw from Iraq, Britain on Tuesday promised resettlement aid to employees.

    London - It was a simple text message. "Quit your job or be killed." Loay Mohammed Al-Tahar had known he was working in a dangerous job, interpreting for British military special units that were arresting and interrogating militias in Basra. But he didn't realize just how dangerous. Until then.

    "I took it seriously because they'd already killed three guys I knew," he says. They were among the scores of Iraqis murdered since 2003 who had worked for multinational forces in Iraq. "I decided to resign."

    He fled to Syria, where he sought help from the British Embassy. No help. He and two other interpreters petitioned Downing Street. There was no immediate response.

    But with the help of Army officers, rights groups, and a series of front-page articles in The Times newspaper, the campaign snowballed to such an extent that Britain on Tuesday finally agreed to grant "resettlement allowances" and, in certain cases, asylum.

    The critical decision comes as Britain's presence in southern Iraq is being wound down, with around 100 interpreters likely to be left behind by next year. It follows a precedent set by Denmark in August, when it granted asylum to 60 Iraqi staff and their families, and airlifted them out of Iraq before pulling the last of its force from the country.

    "I heard the news on TV," says Mr. Tahar, speaking by telephone from Syria. "It's a great decision. I think it's going to help me because I have been in considerable danger, especially after the work I have done with the special forces."

    "Moral Obligation"

    The interpreters have consistently argued that they should be treated separately from other workers who have helped multinational forces.

    Tahar describes why. He says that during special detention operations in Basra through 2005 and 2006, he was repeatedly present when some particularly nefarious characters were being detained and interrogated. A black balaclava masked his identity, but on one occasion a suspect told him that if he found out who he was he would kill him.

    Rights groups say that the least the occupying powers can do is protect those who have provided invaluable service but are now considered traitorous "collaborators" by murderous elements in Iraq.

    Tom Porteous, London director of Human Rights Watch, said governments were "morally obliged to help get these people to safety." "They have put their lives on the line for the sake of the [United Kingdom's] effort in Iraq, and the UK has up until now refused to acknowledge that it has a responsibility towards them."

    Mr. Porteous and others who have closely followed the case say there are still loopholes in the British government's offer. They note that there are two strands to the settlement: a one-off package of financial assistance of up to 12 months' salary to help relocate staff "in Iraq or the region"; or alternatively the chance to apply for asylum. Details on how to apply will be made public later this month.

    "There are some practical issues that have not been clearly spelled out," says Porteous, noting that many former interpreters have, like Tahar, fled to neighboring Syria where they have been refused consular access.

    As Tahar himself puts it: "I don't know if I will have to go to Lebanon or to Amman or if I will have to go back to Basra air station and stay there until they lift me up." He adds that resettlement in the region is a not an option. "If I resettle in another neighboring country, it will be very easy for them [militants] to find me and I will be dead."

    Resettlement More Likely Than Asylum

    The Times newspaper, which has spearheaded the asylum campaign, says the outcome is heavily loaded in favor of resettling Iraqis in the region rather than offering asylum. Senior international affairs editor Richard Beeston says the Home Office was strongly opposed to allowing "hundreds, possibly thousands of ex-Iraqi employees and their families to settle in Britain."

    "They fear a precedent will be set that could allow refugees from around the world's trouble spots to claim the same rights," he says, while adding that there was still some cause for celebration. "Several hundred Iraqis, who a few weeks ago faced a very bleak future as the British withdraw, can now look forward to some compensation for their loyal service.

    Refugee groups argue that a few dozen interpreters are just a drop in the ocean of refugees that have spilled westward from Iraq into Syria and Jordan. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has been urging countries like Britain to increase the numbers of refugees that it takes from Iraq.

    UN figures show that half of all Iraqi asylum applications in the first half of the year 1a 9,300 1a were registered in Sweden. Britain by contrast fielded 580 applications. The majority of asylum requests in Britain are being turned down, official figures show, and some asylum seekers are being returned to Iraq. The US originally said it would resettle 7,000 Iraqis this year, but that number has since been reduced to 2,000, with processing times of up to 10 months.

    Those numbers vanish alongside the enormity of the Iraq refugee crisis. More than 2 million are estimated to have fled the country, and another 2 million are internally displaced within Iraq itself. Most of those who have left the country languish in limbo in neighboring countries. Around 1.4 million are in Syria and 750,000 in Jordan.

    "Syria and Jordan are carrying a hugely disproportionate burden, and that's not being recognised," says Peter Kessler, a UNHCR spokesman. "Clearly much more has to be done to share responsibility for Iraqis who are fleeing the country and to support the Syrian and Jordanian governments."

    Sherif Elsayed-ali, the head of Amnesty International's refugee and migrant rights team, adds that Western governments, "especially the ones that took part in the US-led invasion, have specific responsibility to do more to resettle more refugees." Porteous notes that apart from the moral obligation, the large contingent of refugees presents the threat of greater instability and radicalization in the region.

    Tahar meanwhile faces the prospect of trying to make his money last a few more weeks while he waits for details of how to apply for asylum. "I've been here for seven months; I can hold on for a few more weeks," he says. But what of the future beyond that and his prospects for acclimatizing to British life and weather?

    This reporter tells him it's been raining for days. "I like rain," he says. "It's very hot here."

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